Girdling tool



ly 8, 1 5 w. J. FlNK 2,841,924

GIRDLING TOOL Filed Jan. 11, 1957 INVENTOR. WILL/SJ F/NK' BY mMw MATTORNEY United States Patent 2,841,924 GIRDLING TOOL Willis J. Fink,Corona, Calif. Application Januar 11 1957, Serial No. 633,744

' 1 Claim. c1. ta-1 My invention relates generally to grape vine cultureand more particularly to the practice of girdling the branches or canesof thevines during the growing season to obtain various beneficialeffects upon the product.

Certain varieties of cultivated grapes such as the Thompson seedless,have, the, undesirable characteristic of loosening from their stems afew days after the bunches of grapes are pickedfrom the vines, thusrendering the grapes unmarketable for table use. i

It is the present practice in the culture of suchv grapes for table useto employ various forms of devices by which the branches or canes of thevines are girdled to the thickness of the bark during the early-part ofthegrowingseason when the gra esaie very small, with'the advantageousresult that the vines produce larger than usual grapes which holdtightly to their stems when ripe so as to render them acceptable for thehigher price market of table grapes.

An object of my invention is to provide a girdling tool which isstructurally characterized to enable it to be manipulated with theutmost ease and dispatch by unskilled labor to smoothly and uniformlygirdle the vine canes through the thickness of the bark by cleanlyshaving or chiseling out a narrow band of bark, all in a manner toobviate tearing or ripping of vine stock or of the bark at the edges ofthe removed band of bark, with the attending injury to the vine.

Another object of my invention 'is to provide a girdling tool havingconventional spaced parallel side cutting edges predetermining the widthof the band of bark removed from a cane and operating in conjunctionwith a novel means which may provide one or more other cutting edgesspanning the space between the said side cutting edges and projecting ata chisel-forming angle with respect to the bark of a cane being girdled,so as to facilitate and expedite the smooth shaving away of the barkbetween the side cutting edges and thereby positively insure the clean,non-injurious girdling of the cane.

With these and other objects in view, my invention resides in thecombinations, arrangements and functional relationships of elements asset forth in the following specification and particularly pointed out inthe appended claim.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure l is a view showing in side elevation, one form of girdling toolembodying my invention;

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2--2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 1 with a portion of the tool insection, showing the tool operating upon a cane to girdle same;

Figure 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 5-5of Figure 2; and

Figures 6 is a fragmentary view showing in side eleva- 2,841,924Patented July 8, 1958 sociated with a conventional form of girdling toolcomprising a pair of supporting members in the form of arms S and Swhich are pivotally connected intermediate their ends by means of a flathead screw 10. The arm S is bifurcated to provide a pair of spaced ears11 and 12 between which is received a single ear 13 provided on the armS and having a steel bushing 14 through which the screw 10 freelyextends. The ear 12 is provided with a threaded opening 15 therethroughinto which the screw 10 is threaded until'tight with the head 16 of thescrew seating in a countersunk opening 17 through the ear 11. e As thelength of the bushing 14 slightly exceeds the thickness of the car 13,the screw 10 when securely tightened,

remains so indefinitely without any tendency to loosen as a result ofpivotally moving the arms S and S relatively.

At one side of their pivotal connection the arms S and S form oppositelycurved handles 20 and 21 providing comfortable gripping surfaces,whereas at the oppositeside of their pivotal connection the arms areprovided with jaws in the form of cutting elements E and B. Thesecutting elements are preferably constructed of crucible sheet steel andare identically formed into an slightly flared U-cro ss section'toprovide attaching por j tions 25 at one end which are rigidly secured tothe respective arms S and S by rivets 26.

A coil spring 27 mounted at its ends on pins 28 and 29 projecting fromthe confronting sides of the handles 20 and 21, respectively, urge thearms in a direction to move the elements E and E towards each other tothe closed position shown in Figure 1.

Intermediate their ends the confronting fiat. faces 30 of the elements Eand E are cut away to provide elongated rectangular discharge slots 31the side edges of which are ground to provide spaced parallel sidecutting edges 32 of concave contour, the lengths of which extendperpendicular with respect to the axis of the pivotal connection betweenthe arms S and S, with the cutting edges of one element directlyopposite the cutting edges of the other element as shown in Figure 4.

For the purpose of my invention, the outer end of the slot 31 of thecuttingelernent E is laterally upset between the side cutting edges 32to provide a lip 33 having a cutting edge 34 which spans the spacetransversely between the side cutting edges 32 and projects at achisel-forming angle with respect to the bark b of a cane 0 when thetool is applied to the latter as shown in Figure 3 during the operationof the invention which is as follows:

By gripping and applying pressure to the handles 20 and 21 the arms Sand S are moved from their closed position shown in Figure 1 against theaction of the spring 27, so as'to move the cutting elements E and E awayfrom each other to enable them to receive a cane c therebetween, uponwhich the pressure upon the handles is relieved so as to permit thespring to move and yieldingly maintain the elements E and E in clampingengagement with the cane as clearly shown in Figure 3. The tool is nowrotated upon the cane in a path substantially perpendicular to thelength of the cane to cause the side cutting edges 32 to cut into thebark b along two spaced parallel lines as the cutting edge 34 of the lip33 smoothly chisels or shaves away the bark between the cutting edges32, thus cleanly girdling the cane without tearing or ripping the barkat the edges of the girdling band or otherwise damaging the cane.

Reference will now be had to Figure 6 which shows a conventional form ofgirdling tool with which is associated a second form of my inventiondifiering structurally of my invention applied to' a girdling andfunctionally'from thefirst form above described solely by the provisionof a second lip 33a in addition to the lip 33. The lip 33a is providedwith a cutting edge 34a so as to be identical in construction to the lip33, and is disposed at the inner endof the'cutting element E to functionin the same manner as, and in conjunction with the lip 33. v

From-the foregoing description-and particularly from Figure 5 of thedrawings, it will be entirely clear that my new and novel contributionto the art res-ides in themevision of the lip 33 and/or 34- which.patentably distinguishes my girdling tool both structurally andfunctionally from girdling tools heretofore proposcdi Such prior arttools depend entirely on the closed end of the slot 31 toscrapeout'thechanneled bark;

Although this commonplace or usualtype of girdlingtoolfunctions fairlywell when new, it -utterly fails to perfo'rmits-intended function aftera very short period of use,as the closed end of the slot rapidly becomesinoperative'and merely slides over the-channeled bark instead ofchiseling .or peeling it outsmoothlyas is accomplished indefinitely withmaximum-efliciency by my improved lip 33 and/or 34.

It will be manifest that the provision of the lip 33 and/ or 33a vastlyincreases the efficiency of tools heretofore available to the public, byproviding a keen, durable cutting edge as clearly shown in detail inFigure 5, which will remain operable to cleanly and'smoothly chisel orpeel out the band of bark between the side cutting edges 32, thus notonly producinga first class girdling job indefinitely, but accomplishingit at'minimum cost.

I claimi A cane girdling tool comprising: a pair of supportingmembers;means pivotally connecting said members intermediate their ends to formco-acting handles at one side of the pivotal connection cutting elementssecured to said members at the other side of said pivotal connection andhaving spaced blades defining a discharge slot therebetween; meansco-acting with said members to urge same in a direction to move saidcutting elements towards each other into clamping engagement with a canewhen interposed between the elements; said blades having parallelcutting edges of concave contour extending perpendicularly with respectto the axis' of saidpivotal connection, and with said cutting edges-ofone element disposed directly opposite the cutting edges of the otherelement for co-action therewith in making two spaced circumferentialcuts in the bark of the cane under the action of said urging means whenthe tool is rotated on the cane; at least one of said cutting'ele'mentsbeing laterallyupset between its blades to provide-a lip having acutting'edge spanning the space between said" blades and disposed'at achisel forming angle to shaveaway-the bark of the cane between thecircumferential cuts as the' tool whereby to cleanly girdle the cane.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES-PATENTSSweden';... Oct; 12, 1926 is rotated,

